489 Comments

Wow! I want to say something cautious and skeptical in knee-jerk reaction, but I think maybe it’s just time to soak in the fact that, finally we have a man wise in the ways of Washington who is genuinely working to help the American people-- all of them. May God help him succeed and may He frustrate the machinations of those who hope he will fail.

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Good morning, Kendrick. Short and to the point. This thinking complements the HCR letter today. I hope the forum doesn’t give to much critical space talking about those monopolizing business today and in my mind, stifling creativity outside their ranks. Pres Biden’s administration wants to jumpstart competition and cooperation, not corporation. How can we all accent that? I know that I try to foster it in public education. Starts with strong individualism working towards a common goal which I always termed cooperative competition rather than collectivism. I’ve been in many vibrant classrooms that are a bunch of deliriously happy kids working on same things in multiple ways. It’s a core value in healthy competition.

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New Yorker out with an interview with Tim Wu, who has been working on the executive order. Of note, I was pleased to see this: “Wu and his colleagues are all too aware that this order, too, is likely to be challenged in the courts, where many judges have taken a restrictive view of the government’s power to promote economic competition. So, in drawing it up, they tried to address specific problem areas that are highly visible and subject to existing laws. “The whole approach of this executive order is to focus on areas where there are strong congressional authorities, often given during the New Deal or the nineteen-fifties and sixties, but which are not being fully used,” Wu explained.”

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The billionaire marketing stunt today left me yawning. How ho-hum. The media gave it way too much free air time. So, they are going to commercialize space -- so what else is new. All I saw was someone who pays less tax than I do getting free advertising so he can go make more money. And, this is his plan B in case the Earth succumbs to climate disasters. He could be putting billions into saving the planet rather than giving himself an exit plan. Well, maybe we can hope he'll make longer and longer trips away from Earth. Don't think anyone would miss his absence.

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I am the Opposition. No purchases from Amazon, Tesla or Virgin. Their wealth is obscene. ❤️🤍💙

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I’m with ya!

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Cathy, If I could "Like" your comment more than once about this space ride, I would.

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💯

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I simply changed the channel, no interest in watching this man's ego. Won't watch the other one either.

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A CENTURY OF ECONOMIC HISTORY

The year of my mother’s birth, 1929, everyone in America (& the world) learned that the Stock Market was nothing but high stakes gamble that crapped out. She grew up in abject poverty, hunger & malnutrition in St. Louis. My dad a decade older in Mississippi went off to a CCC camp in 1938 before joining the Marines a year later. With all the efforts of Roosevelt to get the economy rolling again, I suspect WWII is what actually kick-started it.

Which is where I came in during the late 1940s thru the ‘50s when babies & economy were booming again and a man could support a family on his single income buying a car & a house in the ‘burbs. My (new) dad even had discretionary money to buy a Color TV, Stereo Console, Tape Recorder, 8mm Movie Cam, Polaroid Land Cam & other toys for the family. This boom continued thru my young adulthood in the late 1960s & ‘70s where I lived comfortably as a single man on minimum wages jobs & with a partner actually could take off and travel the world.

By 1980 it was taking both partners income to maintain a household with a child settling down at jobs that paid a bit more than minimum wages. And so it went the rest of my life during the 21st Century where I was single & eking by on almost twice the minimum wages. IDK how anyone could have lived on $5.15 per hour in 2000 to $7.50 an hour where it stopped in 2009, while prices for everything still steadily increased over the past decade.

This is the ugly side of Capitalism with most of our national wealth held by a few multi-billionaires while the masses struggle to survive on a pittance, while our legislators collude with the moneyed interests instead of with We the Ppl. (Yes, I may be a Socialist).

Actually, I agree with the economics of Robert Reich who debunks the “trickle down” voodoo economics of Reagan and points out that it should be trickle up, as the masses with discretionary cash could buy more products that would stimulate the economy. And the obscene wealth at the top should be squeezed to pay their fair share of taxes like they did in the time of Eisenhower.

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I really love Robert Reich! And Katie Porter.

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Katie Porter for President!

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I grew up during much of that time frame, also. During the '50s, '60s, and early '70s, most families had a one-income household, and about 25% of that income went to cover a mortgage payment or rent. Nowadays, it can require 50% or more of a two-income household to pay a mortgage or rent. Someone in government or the corporate cabal decided that real estate would be the best area to exploit people for more of their income. (Everyone has to have shelter.)

Food became cheaper after WWII because that's when chemical agriculture began. ("Better living through chemistry" is what DuPont told us.) The cancer rate for farmers went steadily higher as they handled those chemicals; and the chemicals didn't do the population any favors either. By the 1990s, the powers that be knew that they had to keep food prices down if they wanted real estate prices to keep rising--hence, Bush Sr. and VP Quayle got GMO agriculture approved in the final months of their administration; that is, after they had lost the reelection and before Clinton was sworn in. Now, we're not eating real food for the most part. Genetically modified food is the main source of food in the U.S. now, and the chemicals required for that are a variant of Agent Orange and Roundup. Approximately 90% of the corn and soybeans grown in Indiana alone are GMOs. (64 nations in the world at least require GMO foods to be listed in the ingredients but not in the U.S. That illustrates the power of Monsanto, DuPont, et al in our country.) Now, the food processors even have chemicals to simulate food tastes, and they're very sophisticated.

The too-big-to-fail corporations have no heart and no sense of public community. They just want more and more of peoples' incomes and the national treasury as well. The more they have, the more money is available to buy politicians to get the laws they want. The "citizens united" ruling by the sc gave corporations the status and added power they wanted.

Good, healthy food in the U.S. should cost more, and real estate should cost much less. I don't see that happening.

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There is no corporate conscience, I always said, growing up in Dow Chemical's town 60 years ago.

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So true. There is no corporate conscience. And Dow Chemical is big into GMO agriculture with its Round-up production. 60 years ago? That's about the time Dow began producing Agent Orange en masse to defoliate Vietnam and the rest of Southeast Asia. The resulting birth defects have been horrendous for first and second generations of Americans and Vietnamese, among other nationalities. Another bonus for serving in the U.S. Army. First, Dow and the VA denied any damage to soldiers and their offspring. They're still denying it for U.S. Military members who served in Thailand (1965-75). The government's just waiting for them to die off before it acknowledges culpability.

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And my dad was a Dow environmental engineer, always between a rick and a hard place, secretly calling the state health department when the plant illegally dumped toxins in the river. His job didn't even include Agent Orange and Napalm. Horrors. Before he retired he was Dow's Global Environmental Engineer, and prevented a Bopahl and a Love Canal. Then as the rep from the Chemical Manufactuerer's Association, he worked with Anne Gorsuch and Rita Lavelle on Superfund, and warned them that they shouldn't be cozying up with industry, but Rita, at one of many public lunches didn't care. I was watching NBC new one night when Tom Brokaw announced that Rita Lavelle had lunch with Charles Sercu (my dad) 11 times. I tried to call my dad but, unbeknownst to us kids, he and my mom had been ordered by the Dow CEO to take a 3 week vacation and tell no one where they went. He did help industries buy into Superfund at a time when the environmentalist wanted zero parts per trillion pollutants, and the industry could only messure per billion. Stuff like that. And he and Mom went to Anne Gorsuch's 2nd wedding, said she had a fine son... He's written a book, "Too Soon Green" that Dow lawyers indist "will NEVER be published." I have it...

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Wow. God bless your dad.

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You describe this well...I have lived this life myself.

"This is the ugly side of Capitalism with most of our national wealth held by a few multi-billionaires while the masses struggle to survive on a pittance, while our legislators collude with the moneyed interests instead of with We the Ppl. "

I have never understood the obsession with "obscene wealth" - how many mansions does it take to keep a person happy - how many gold plated toilets - how many drugs - how many jets - how many parties? We all have the same number of hours in a day. Why do some need to fill them with NOTHING OF MEANING. I see our legislators as terrified wannabes, living inside a very fragile bubble that can be burst by just a prick from anyone and everyone...

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Couldn’t agree more and thanks for the personal/historical viewpoint

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The biggest change in economics in my lifetime (I am 77) has to do with the relative costs of food and clothing on the one hand and shelter on the other. Food and clothing were expensive when I was growing up, and housing was cheap. Today it is the other way around. One can of course spend a great deal on food and clothing today, but one doesn’t have to. There are many simple ways to economize. There is really no way to save on housing. The ridiculous increase in the cost of housing since the 80’s has ruined countless lives.

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I should have had a disclaimer that when I lived on minimum wages as a young man in the ‘60s & ‘70s it was in New Orleans, the “Big Easy.” Rent was cheap, gas was cheap, and food was affordable. My clothes were not fancy, jeans & shirts. Winter coat seldom needed & lasted for years. Now I live on Miami Beach where my rent on a studio apt. is $1K a month (location, location) and I have felt the increase in groceries steadily go up (some recently due to the pandemic).

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Check if/how Miami Beach residents are at risk of rising sea level. (Jeff Carpenter is a LFAA reader.) Stay safe!

https://jcarpenterstudio.com/portfolio-portfolio/public-art-projects/fema-flood-map-florida

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Well stated!

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I’m a historian myself and a huge admirer of HCR’s ongoing and daily work, but this edition completely misses the significant role of the late 19th and early 20th century labor movement and the intensifying class conflict that helped define and motivate the Progressive and New Deal era governmental reforms. Where’s a mention of Haymarket, Homestead, Pullman, Lawrence, Seattle, the 1934 general strike wave, Flint and multiple other strikes and mass movements that served to define the decades between 1880 and 1940 as much as the ostentatious wealth and political influence of the Carnegies,the Rockefellers and their political enablers? Where’s mention of the Knights of Labor, the Populists, the Wobblies, the AFL, the CIO in this discussion? I know it’s hard to get everything into a short piece like this but it ends up perpetuating old tropes and old historical distortions that read out of the historical record the key contributions of working people to whatever progressive changes we’ve managed to realize in this country.

Steve Brier, CUNY Graduate Center

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Steve, I was thinking something similar, but at the same time I understand why HCR focused on the trust-busting activities of the executive branch. I know this is your jam, but if you will indulge me:

The twin evils of industrial-era monopolies and Ricardian economic theory combined in the 19th-20th centuries with basic garden-variety racism and sexism to deliberately keep large portions of the population (BIPOC, women, immigrants, PIAA, etc) poor and desperate enough to work for pittances in order to keep the kleptocrats in their cushy mansions and filling their coffers. Unions were an enormous development and huge contribution to the busting up of monopolies, but the unions were not friendly to women (other than the ILGWU after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire) or to immigrants, Blacks, and people of color. It is perhaps the height of irony that, during this era, the champions of Black prosperity in the industrial cities of the north and midwest were the party bosses, like Tom Pendergast in Kansas City, whose support in the Black community came about because he employed them, supported their push into greater financial security, and used (yes--and exploited their situation) them against his white monopolistic enemies. The system was inherently corrupt, but as soon as the bosses were taken down by the feds, the people who had benefited were punished--which meant that the most at-risk populations were again reduced to penury. And unions sure didn't help them out. Think about the UFW movement in the 1960s: the farm workers were not supported by the regular unions so Chavez and Co had to create one of their own. I have many other examples from personal experience of the resistance of unions to addressing racism and sexism in their organizations.

Unions were super important in the movement of (mostly) white men from poverty to the middle class, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, but they were not interested in the rest of the populations. The thing I like about Biden's approach is that he is targeting the populations consistently left out of the equation as places where help is desperately needed. And that is, in part, because unions are still not looking progressively at the problems of monopolistic pseudo-capitalism from their perspective.

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Good Linda. This is answer to question asked of early commenter critical of HCR for not including it. I always gave thinking to do after you responses to sort thing out. You are an amazing source of info, Linda Mitchell. And a succinct teacher.

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Thanks Christine!

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I earned my living in a unionized career! My father was on of those ‘white guys’ who was a union electrician working in the Brooklyn Navy yard. Recently, I truly appreciated the fact that Up til the age of 26 I always lived in a house provided for by my father’s work.

However, all was not union bliss! The Navy Yard union was separate from the larger union of electrician’s in NYC and that group did not provide membership to the Navy Yard workers after the war! My father left the Navy Yard in the mid forties after the war then had to seek work wherever he could find a union job in the NY/NJ area, sometimes hours away from our home. It was not until the late 50’s that the NYC union local accepted the Navy Yard workers into their union!

When the construction boom hit NYC in the late 60’s, the local union could not provide enough worker’s for all the jobs, so they opened enrollment to qualified nearby unions. At first this seemed like the obvious thing to do, however it led to a glut of workers which meant workers had to take up to 4 weeks of furlough due to a lack of work when building projects slowed. The Negative point here is that union leaders had a hidden agenda in expanding their enrollment, more workers meant more dues, meant better negotiating power (short lived)! Fattened union coffers provided better pay for the ‘leaders’ even in times when the journeymen had to take a furlough!

Yes, unionized labor helped build our country after WWII and into the 70’s, but in all too many cases the union leaders, who had not worked with their tools for too many years, worked for their self interest !

Today in NJ, one of the so called leaders from south Jersey of the Democratic Party is a man who earned a living as a member of a union, but now has ‘turned his back on them’!

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That's my friend, Linda Mitchell, who said that!

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Excellent points, Linda.

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Steve, can you provide a bit of a supplementary elaboration of the labor movement and class conflict in late 19th and early 20th century?

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Yesterday, I repeated Ellie's advice to us about ignoring a person or persons on the forum seeking to distract, divert and swamp the forum's exchanges by moving it away from the subject or subjects of Heather's Letter. 'Biden signed “An Executive Order Promoting Competition in the American Economy,” I fairly large cluster of subscribers today have been drawn into a discussion of 'public school monopoly', 'licensing'???? What does that have to do with the crucial subject of reigniting our economy for the benefit of the people?

See the exchanges going below.

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Fern, You are so right again. Simply ploop-a-licious today.

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Charlie, Ellie suggested we just ignore. I repeated the essence of her message yesterday. The same character had lassoed subscribers or they found him irristible, and many of the same subscribers engaged with him again today. Ellie advised not to PLOP or Ploop, just ignore. I left her a reply about this. I'm going to stick with her advice.

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Good advice. I have trouble spotting these folks. Anyway to PM you?

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'Anyway to PM you?' Please explain what this means? I don't know that Ellie will respond to me or follow up today.

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It is driving me crazy. The same thing happened later yesterday.

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There is actually a simple solution to this. Substack needs a subscriber filter that allows people to block (not see) postings and threads from chosen people. Like identifying 'phishing mail' in Gmail. Bull shit would disappear overnight. SL would be my first block.

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Great idea to have a subscriber filter--that idea needs to go to Substack. Not even HCR would have control over that. Ellie is just another subscriber here who is only sharing her observations and experience on how to most effectively deal with posts that are distracting. Ignore the posts you don't like so they fall to the bottom and spend your typing on the ones you do like so they rise to the top.

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RW mine.

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Yes, please! Trying to filter the 💩 is exhausting.

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Necessary, to be sure. Do you mind copying your post to Ellie and see what she thinks?

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Why have you participated in it?

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Because so much space is taken up falling for bait. I try to alert. Apparently, just saying “plop” which I saw as effective, is just as offensive to people and creates more diversion from topic.

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Charlie, Apologies, too tied up. I'll email you this evening.

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Cool. Busy here also.

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Yep - RW's ploop ploop fizz fizz popped up when I went to the comments - this time I skipped right over it. Honest - ignoring works so much better. (and I've been drawn in before too).

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The same are often magnetized by it the next day. Others don't get until after much of their time has been wasted.

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True - it sure does take away from the main subject of the day, tho. Pays to stop & think for a moment before your fingers hit the keys. I'm better at that than I used to be - but still get drawn in now & then.

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I think the emphasis was the good of unions, not public school merits.

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Sure. I and my colleagues at the American Social History Project wrote books and produced videos and websites under the rubric Who Built America? You can find details at ashp.cuny.edu.

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Thank you. HCR limits her LFAA to about 1200 words, but one of the great features of this forum of good hearts and minds is when readers post supplementary information and/or analysis.

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The American Social History Project is a beautiful resource and can be found on Facebook and Twitter:

https://www.facebook.com/ashpcml

https://twitter.com/ashp_cml

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And their two-volume text of the same title is quite readable, with good illustrations. They went through several editions and is readily available used.

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Delayed edit: "are" readily available...

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I think you miss the point. It is not either or but rather both end. You could not have had one without the other.

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Both-and is my favorite paradigm. I read "and" in my comment, if you are directing your comment to me.

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My comment was directed to Steve Brier. Sorry.

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Steve, perhaps you would better off to go to the Boston College website and consider enrolling in that University . I'm not sure the exact overall costs involved, let alone the per credit hour for Dr Richardson's classes, but I would be willing to wager that exceeds the $5.00 per month that Substack charges for this subscription.

That would certainly be an option , but if that isn't your preference, perhaps be grateful for what she offers up to us on a daily basis. If you think she will cover a semester in a single letter, you are mistaken.

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Oh Linda, snap!!

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Linda, I'm just giving this gentleman his options. 🤷‍♀️

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"I know it’s hard to get everything into a short piece like this ..."

Why do you ask questions to which you already know the answer?

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Rob, To differ, I think that it is fair for a subscriber to wonder why some important factor or factors of a subject were not mentioned in the Letter. On the subject of unions, a number of very informative comments were made by subscribers. I believe the question and the comments were informative, exactly what the forum is about.

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Thanks for affirming labor’s crucial role in reform. Solidarity supports social cohesion and stability hyper individualism creates a schism Ed polarized and lonely society Just like the 2020’s. Bowling Alone anyone?

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Steve. Thanks for the links you provided. One of the really big reasons I adore LFAA is that many of the regulars know stuff, have a different take on the issue addressed in the LFAA (including Sandy and Ron); you add grist to my daily porridge. For me, I get to learn along with others each day. And, some stuff I forget. 😏

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Organized labor became another non competitive empire in the twentieth century with all the corruption and greed. You have to have the checks and balances of regulation and competition.

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I had a similar reaction to this piece, Steve. HCR brings up the 1912 presidential election, but neglects to mention that in addition to the two progressive candidates (TR, whose Progressive Party was better known as the Bullmoose Party, and Wilson, who won as the Democrat) there was also Eugene Debs, a labor organizer running as a Socialist. Progressive politicians supported reforms only when faced with pressure from strikes and other demonstrations led by socialist organizers. The distinction between progressives and socialists seems to be lost today.

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"Biden’s speech on Friday reclaims a different theme in our history, that of government protecting individualism by keeping the economic playing field level."

In other words, government regulation and oversight are an essential element to a thriving, free-market, capitalist, economy. The same can be said for maintaining a habitable planet.

Both notions fly in the face of reaganism's"government IS the problem" philosophy that is the core of current Republican political dogma.

One hopes that after the last two examples of first Republican then Democratic responses to the Covid 19 pandemic illustrating the effectiveness of both philosophies that more and more people are becoming aware of the wisdom of the progressive point of view of the role government must play in modern affairs.

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Good morning Ralph. Could not have been a more relevant example than the Covid response. Former President Trump, ignored science, fostered bleach conspiracy, flicked it off like an irritating flea itch to to the “states” to deal with. Wrong umbrella. Pres Biden organized all phases of the response at the fed level and provided guidelines to the states. Right umbrella.

Get a grip Q nuts.

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Sean Penn nailed it when he said Trump was guilty of negligent homicide.

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But was it negligent? He knew in January 2020 that the US was confronted with a deadly virus, and suppressed and ignored that information.

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Sean Penn does not mince anything, especially words.

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I have been putting the elected GOP right up there with the blame for the ghastly COVID disaster. They allowed this to idiot-in-chief to downplay the severity, make a joke about it with Clorox and sunshine, and make it using safety measures such as masks and social distancing a political game. They did not and do not have the courage to stand up to his mockery and manipulation of our entire nation.

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or the morality. Murderers all in my (public health) text book.

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Let's not forget Katrina and the lack of a government involvement.

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Au contraire! The Bush Administration did "a heckuva job!"

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Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! Color me a cheerleader for all things competition! I checked my toolbox and found nothing to further this conversation.

However, and not to distract, I discovered that an organization called Four Directions Native Vote has joined forces with another organization called Fair Count in the effort to overcome voter suppression. What I didn't know is that Fair Count is another "arrow" in Stacey Abrams' quiver to advance voting for all disenfranchised people in the country. While listening to a video she put out, another organization, Skoll Foundation, promoted her video. Skoll's mission is to build "a sustainable world of peace and prosperity for all." Anyone with more information to contribute would be most welcome to chime in!

Fair Count:

https://www.faircount.org/

Four Directions:

https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/four-directions-native-vote-and-fair-count-join-forces-to-overcome-voter-suppression#:~:text=ATLANTA%20%E2%80%94%20Four%20Directions%20Native%20Vote%20and%20Fair,effort%20throughout%20various%20parts%20of%20the%20United%20States.

Stacey's video;

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=fair+fight+versus+fair+count&docid=608011006652153688&mid=ECA4E4C03CCEF5E83A97ECA4E4C03CCEF5E83A97&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

Skoll:

https://skoll.org/

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Thank you, Lynell! Including this with "news to use to stay positive!"

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Fair Count started in 2019 as one wing of the freedom birds to tackle census issues. Became familiar with them when canvassing during elections in 2020. Voting suppression and gerrymandering techniques affecting communities of color all tie in to census. Issue of bigger concern than known during former administration. Fair Count helped me yo sort that issue with correct approach.

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More good fingerprints from Stacey Abrams' crew!

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I have supported Four Directions for several years. It’s been a sobering education in the difficulties created at state and federal levels for Indian voters.

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Thanks, Mary. Good to get a confirmation about these folks.

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Adding these groups to Twitter and Facebook led me to another cool organization:

The Blue Institute: "Bringing more young people of color to become leaders, strategists, and key staff members of progressive electoral campaigns and organizations."

https://theblue.institute/?fbclid=IwAR1JokXrkBTyOL8sNAFCqaERurlYcKIwkjubjeBRUXte8zp-YagYHbDxSn0

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Proof positive, Ellie, that there are bright spots lurking among the shadows!

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Most excellent sources.

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I got nothin' today.

There's a new fire just to the north of where we are wrapping up our "birthday weekend" family gathering. My niece's boyfriend (they are both pilots for Horizon Air) was able to identify not just the four planes (well, three planes and one helicopter) flying out of the Redmond Airport, but realize that he had a friend flying the helicopter. There are small areas of Jefferson County on Level 3 / Level 2 evac notices (leave now, get your stuff ready to leave). There's another new fire to the south with additional evac notices.

I did read (with waning interest) the commentary today. It seems some regular contributors are interested in simply stirring the pot of argument, calling out the Professor for her whiteness, or simply baiting other readers. I have also been subjected to my ever so "reasonable" "conservative" friends challenging all of the "libs" to clearly articulate why voter registration is so hard, and how "we" really believe that "the blacks" are "too dumb to get their documentation together." I firmly believe that there has been an engineered divide in this country, and on a visceral level it has finally worked for me. These people, that I once tried to have discussions with, are just (insert several various profanities, blasphemies, and vulgarities here) idiots who have surrendered their frontal cortexes to their amygdalae and are now just blathering.

Godspeed to President Biden as he tries to undo* the mess that 40 years of Republiqan politics have gotten us into. I'm off to try and remotely coordinate a band rehearsal that will include distribution of music in an outdoor setting.

*substitute a profanity here as well.

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I woke to news of this Jefferson County fire + the others... please stay safe. What a terrible, terrible mess we've made of our world. :*(

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I’d love to do just that for you, Ally. I’m already “in trouble” with some on the forum for blandly insulting one of the provokers. Your comment gets to point. It does affect me on visceral level. Whether it’s someone trolling or an associate “blathering” or expecting detailed reasons why opposition to voter registration or “blacks and browns not smart enough to get docs together”.

Dang it, Ally. Be careful of the fires and heat. Hope the music can be some “hot tunes” and tempers cooler.

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Ally, I agree. There's little energy these days to try to respond to all the different thoughts forwarded here and in daily life. And, I struggle to determine what news is real, and not some troll trying to worm into my brain. Taking the day off.

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Hi Ally -

I appreciate your perspective and - although slightly off topic - on Fri 7/30 I’ll be performing in Sisters (where my daughters grew up) with David Jacobs-Strain and the Crunk Mountain Boys. Though I still need to find out exactly what, when and where.

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Sadly, some who shall not be named, are simply off their meds....

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Stay safe and you are wise to focus on letting music feed your soul!

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We will be hoping that you stay safe.

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Morning, Ally!! Seems your "got nothin'" is a whole lot of somethin'. Hunker down. Stay safe.

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Stay safe and well, Ally!!

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Meant to add that this divide can seem/be insurmountable. At least we know we’re on the “good side,” speaking up for and helping those whose lovely voices have been muffled.

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“Biden’s speech on Friday reclaims a different theme in our history, that of government protecting individualism by keeping the economic playing field level.”

I would add a couple of observations. Capitalism depends on an ever expanding “universe” and the U.S. economy has reached, in a product cycle analogy, the mature phase of business where “sales” level off and decline. That does not necessarily represent a bad thing, but it complicates the macro economics.

Given the overlay of climate change and its impact on where food will be grown, water availability, migrating populations, pollution that exists in every corner of the globe, and the vast economic inequities that exist in this country as well as around the world, innovation and growth need to be viewed with a very different lens.

IMO, the playing field that needs to be leveled in today’s world has more to do with protecting the collective vs. straight up individualism.

The race to consumer space travel by the multi $billionaire trio Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk is an example of what I see as “innovation” and individualism gone astray. Again, IMO they are not “exploring”, they are exploiting. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. More than ever, we need to recognize the difference when applying political solutions and policies.

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A thought came up when reading about the race to space among the billionaires. Their wealth and influence can also be used to help combat global warming by encouraging and investing in green changes. Instead I see this endeavor as the wealthy working on escaping a doomed planet. A bit loony tunes on my part, but the idea is stuck in my head.

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It is stuck in my head too!

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Not loony tunes! I thought the same thing as I watched the giddy happiness by Branson as he flies thru space! All that money spent to (as you said, Christi) escape this planet rather than use it to prevent it from being doomed! What a waste.

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It's also massive ego-signalling "I am the greatest".

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"I have the biggest ..... (fill in the blank)" I guess "pocketbook" would be the polite answer.

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Perfect, LOL! During my career in the investment business, my husband would say I was always at a disadvantage because I didn’t have a “pocketbook”. He suggested I buy one and put it on the table during meetings! 🤣

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Most definitely. Tremendous sums of money wasted on “look at me”. Ugh.

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Imagine if one was the first to pay his fair share of taxes.

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Imagine and MAKE IT SO.

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And, Branson admitted he wanted to be the "first", so moved up his launch date to beat out Bezos.

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I agree completely! All that you said, and "...they are not "exploring", they are exploiting." Do we have Space Environmental Protection Agency to stop these egos?

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This, we need! You are on it, MaryPat!

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We do need our president and politicians to recognize the ills of our big businesses and the one way flow of wealth. I listened to one of Robert Reich’s info videos. That if they taxed Bezos as is proposed, Bezos would pay the amount he makes in half of a day! I don’t remember the amount but it was more than I’ll make in a lifetime. That’s ludicrous!

Break up trusts and monopolies, tax these extremely rich vultures, give us working schmoes a chance at a better life. Repair our societal needs.

This letter makes me think we can get back on track!

Thank you, Heather!

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These boys spending money to go to space is beyond comprehension. How do you rationalize you deserve this when many of your employees/fellow citizens are unable to afford food, housing, healthcare, education, childcare...?

The world you live in is in crisis from climate change. Your money will be useless if there is no water to drink or clean air to breathe. I thank God we have a President who understands this. We have finally emerged from 45 who was all about what is in it for me?

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Narcissism, entitlement, and short-term thinking/gratification--meaning rationalizing spending oodles of money for a privileged unique experience does not even cross one's mind?

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It crosses mine.

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As it would for people who have empathy, humility, consideration for others, and the ability to defer self-gratification and engage in macro-level long term thinking that productively leads to the greater good for all!

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Were you referring to the infantile imbecilic idiot that acted like a demented satanic clown for the last 4 years? I thought 💭 so. I wouldn’t trade all of the wealth in the world for his karma.

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I'm heartened by the unexpected things President Biden is doing. It's clear he's listening to more progressive voices, including those his administration has hired. But will steps like these make enough of a difference in the short-term (next elections) and help increase the slim Democratic margins?

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Just getting rid of non-compete employment clauses would give him the votes of 30 million people currently chained to their jobs.

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That would be throwing a great ripple effect in the pond, TC. Exciting to ponder. It’s what I think the intent is of HCR’s letter today. Because I think Pres Biden is throwing rocks in the right pond. Think so?

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TC, do you really think so? that could be freakin transformative!

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I know my nephew, who works in the financial/banking industry and has an education and experience background that allows him to actually negotiate with an employer (unlike the vast majority of job applicants) to me he still had to be very specific with his current (new) employer about how his job was described, because they had a "non-compete" clause that could have had him up the proverbial creek if he ever was let go and sought new employment. He said he'd vote for Biden (he already did in 2020) if he got rid of those things. Now just think of all the people who didn't have his qualifications and ability to negotiate.

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The term itself “non-compete clause” is an absolutely hideous phrase. What in the world? Talk about stifling competition. Get rid of it.

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The formal legal language is a Restrictive Covenant. In other words, it's a promise you must keep as a condition of getting the job. The promise is defined in the contract.

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Kelly! Whaaaaat? A non-compete clause in a contract in legal jargon is a Restrictive Covenant??? OMG! That sounds cult like. I despise it even more now. I’m surprised now that one doesn’t have to cut themselves and swear it in blood. Geez! Next time I or anyone I know is going to sign a contract, the question is……

“Can you point out any restrictive covenants in this contract?”

That is the fact for the day, Kelly.

Thank you! (Are you a lawyer?)

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For us auslander pig-ignorants - what exactly is a "non-compete" clause?

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Basically it’s a contract that says when you leave employment, you can’t work for a competitor for a specific period of time (often 5 years). Some can be very restrictive, severe legal repercussions if broken.

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In most states, a five year non-compete would be unenforceable. The issue is that even a 12 month non-compete (and the old company has to pay you while you’re not working, btw) is too expensive to fight if you’re working for these large, well-financed and well-lawyered corporations. So good talent is forced to the sidelines.

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Hey, Hugh. If you are employed by somebody and leave to start your own business, and you signed a non-compete clause, you can't solicit your old company's clients. There may be other things, too, but this one popped up for me right away.

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or if you make sandwiches for Pot Bellied Pork Sandwiches (A made up name, I do not certify there is not one) they can put a noncompete clause in to prevent you from "stealing" their recipe for a sandwich that will prevent you from working for any other restaurant in New York State for ten years.

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Hugh, in CA since WWII (1941) such contracts are generally VOID. See, CA Business & Profession Code, Section 16,600. This statute includes anyone who is restrained from a "lawful profession, trade or business of any mind ..."

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Unfortunately, California is an outlier. Non competes are legal in the vast majority of states; and while there may be enforceability questions with draconian agreements, individuals often don’t have the resources to litigate with former employers even in jurisdictions where the law is more favorable to employees so non competes can in effect take on a life of their own.

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" ... any kind", sorry.

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Hugh, Kelly has provided a spot on explanation. One aspect to remember is that non competes can vary from State to State. Some States do not recognize it as "law".

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Right TC and those poor souls way outnumber the educated and well connected who understand what non compete clauses are.

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Exactly my point, and my nephew pointed out that the majority of employees where he's working didn't have the opportunity or ability to do what he did - in fact that was his point, that such a situation means it shouldn't be done. How many "trade secrets" does a bank teller have access to? (the specific instance in his situation)

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I rather doubt this. My observation is that entitled people are rarely grateful, and once out from under enforceable burdens are prone to put those burdens on others.

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Well, in the specific instance I am speaking of, my nephew understands the entitlement and thinks it's a bad thing.

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I understand. I just don't think this is something that can be extrapolated to 30 million voters. Our local state representative worked on getting rid of non competes here in Ma, but had to field questions about what was wrong with businesses trying to protect their interests...from constituents who had signed non competes! Go figure.

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Well, let’s see what happens after Pres Biden gets rid of it.

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Short answer: yes.

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Thank you for this. In many ways, as you describe it, last Friday’s speech is historic, and inspirational. But it was not well-covered by the media. I am hearing about it from you, in spite of not being inattentive to news. It was not discussed on Sunday news shows, which, if they were not outright interrupted by Virgin and Richard Branson’s replication of an X-15 flight (something which no one I saw happened to mention), they spent most of their time talking about. What I fear most—what Trump and the Republicans of today exploit so thoroughly—is that the gatekeepers of the media, who should focus public attention on what is important, are constantly focusing on the trivial, or on outright delusions. The founders, who seem to have feared popular opinion could be misled at times, expected that at least leaders who would gather together in Congress, representing their different interests, would set aside the noise, and on balance make reasonable decisions, and through the franking privilege, help to moderate delusions, and guide their constituents, as with Edmund Burke’s Speech to the Electors of Bristol. But instead, if they do not outright promote monstrous delusions themselves—which, even if covered in the news with horror, are covered—or react by denouncing delusions and lies, the politicians do not speak of the good they try to do for the public often enough. Or, more accurately, the gatekeepers of the media largely ignore them when they do speak about significant and important policy and legislation. Public opinion is constantly being misled, and Republican leaders, to a level of near-treasonous proportions, seem prepared to exploit the failures of the media, rather than to address them. They seem to be motivated solely by desire for personal power, and the power of their key multimillionaire supporters, against the interests of their own constituents, and the vast majority of the public. Your letter on Biden’s speech is a valuable blow against that tendency, and I will share it. But what can be done to help make news coverage more focused on actual public issues, rather than spectacle or folly?

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The Branson coverage is Sickening ! So what, a mega billionaire has a new toy! Yes the adventure created jobs. However, that money could have been spent on creating jobs in cancer research, for one area! Research on stabilizing ALS victims! Spent on convincing politicians that Climate Change is an imminent threat to humanity!

Or more simply, that $$$ could have been spent on improving the wages of the people who work for the Branson enterprises!

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Yes, the media has done a very poor job of covering and analyzing/explaining what matters. For 20 years I’ve watched CBS and NBC nightly news daily and subscribed to my local newspaper, reading it almost cover to cover, except for sports. I added subscriptions to the Washington Post and then the New York Times in 2019 and 2020.

I’m currently reading “The Imposters: How Republicans quit governing and seized American politics” by Steve Benen. I’ll be the first to acknowledge that hindsight is 20/20 and that it’s so much easier to see patterns over time. He goes back to George W, but mostly deals with events in the Obama and Trump administrations. I recognize pieces and was oblivious to others, but read while wondering how, given that I was paying attention to mainstream news was I unaware of the calamity of what was happening? And why were mainstream media covering the noise and not looking for the meat of the story?

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Thank you DJ. I’d love to hear broadcasting suggestions where reporting has balance. The journalists in print are more available.

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This!! 💯💯Thank you!

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We need more muckrakers!

It is greed, lust for power, that kneecaps us today.

Cooperation with competition will work for a just and sustainable future. The notion of 'sustainable' is fairly critical. We are, again, burning in the West. If we are not placing the environment and sustainable economies in the forefront, we are not succeeding.

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The term “muckraker” is such a doozy. I remember LOL the first time I heard it and again today. So relevant. A quick bit of perspective…

“Theodore Roosevelt coined the term "muckraker" during a speech in 1906. He compared investigative reporters to the narrow-minded figure in John Bunyan's 17th-century religious fable, "The Pilgrim's Progress": the "man that could look no way but downwards, with a muckrake in his hand."

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Thank you for that historical tidbit Christine. Muckrake we shall!

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It is in West from Appomatox.

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As a artist, I have to compete with hundreds and sometimes thousands of others, in order to be accepted into top fairs around the country. I am the producer, buyer, marketing director, sales clerk, janitor and muscle that carries, cleans, puts up and takes down hundreds of pounds of equipment in whatever weather mother nature throws at us. Competition is fierce. I make beadwoven jewelry. Jewelry is often 25 percent of all available art at a fair.

Most art fairs do not allow “buy-sell” items. In this case, they don’t make me compete with items manufactured overseas and sold at very cheap prices; prices I cannot compete with given how labor intensive my medium is. I appreciate that. My work is good; I have won Best of Show, which is rare in the jewelry world. But my prices are high. If they weren’t, I couldn’t make a living.

Biden’s goal is similar- level the playing field, increase honest competition, keep those trying to monopolize the market from being able to control it while also paying attention to consumer needs. Sounds like good governance to protect the economy to me. We have so much to do right now. Rein in predatory corporate practices, protect and re-secure the right to vote, work on regulating carbon emissions, and help those most affected by loss of jobs during the pandemic. And the Delta variant is out there wreaking havoc. I grateful to have a president and his staff capable of multi tasking. Lots of work to do - just like an artist.

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There is another type of monopoly emerging in our technical age. The exploitation of data. Some of these big tech companies manage data for smaller companies and then absorb and eviscerate the small company because the swallowing company has all the pertinent data of that small company - customer lists, etc.etc. -- and exploits it for their own benefit many times putting the smaller out of business. It is in these small businesses and start-ups where real innovation happens so we lose a lot when they are stifled.

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Exact same thing with drugs

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I am concerned about individual DNA data.

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Hopefully, among the mergers and acquisitions they won't allow is Amazon to swallow MGM here in Hollywood. Big Tech is set to fuck up Hollywood like they have fucked up every other sphere of economic action they invade and destroy. Bezos wants MGM for the same reason the other Tech giants want to grab a studio, to - as he says - redevelop and reimagine all the IP MGM holds" - what that means is recycle every old movie in the MGM library into something "new, yet not so different." That's what happens when monopolies become dominant - they don't want innovation and new stuff, because they don't know how to control and market that. I'm talking about the parochial interests of movies, but it works the same everywhere.

And yes, I will urge you all to buy my books through Amazon, since they offer honest accounting to my publisher, which means honest accounting to me, unlike the bookstore business, whose "accounting" processes make "Hollywood accounting" look like it's the product of angels.

Damned if we do, damned if we don't.

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When Bezos took over the Washington Post he really didn’t mess it up. He poured resources into the paper and this paper works quite well in its muckraking role. I became a digital subscriber shortly after Cheeto was elected.

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I subscribe to WaPo, I like the paper too. I don't see that it has been changed dramatically. I also subscribe to the NYT. I tried the WSJ but cancelled it the first week after the paper published an article sliming the First Lady for no good reason... for daring to be educated and use an honorific like thousands of men do in academia.

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Hi Cheerio - yes we also get the NYTIMES because we’re transplanted NYers in Boston area. I’ve never gotten the WSJ but I’m not surprised they slimed Dr. Biden— misogyny is rampant in the world.

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In Murdock family DNA! Slime sells!

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Interesting....I cancelled my WSJ subscription because of that awful hit job on Dr Biden too. Sheer gratuitous put down written by someone who might be called a 'has been' if there had ever been anything useful he'd actually done besides make snide comments about people and places he envied and clubs he couldn't join.

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I could have forgiven.. okay, overlook a one-off from some crank but then they continued to double-down on it and of course, stir the Twitterers up and then the other RWJackoffs. So I called and told them to stop it since they don't let you unsub online.

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I currently subscribe to the trifecta also. I keep WSJ only to keep a finger on the pulse. I fight myself often to cancel.

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The subscriptions become like habits that are hard to change.

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Other than being unable to read an article someone references to in a column (often from The Dispatch: of which Conservative analysis of the day is generally covered by).... It has not given me a case of FOMO.

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No idea FOMO please?

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"Overall, we rate the Wall Street Journal Right-Center biased due to low biased news reporting combined with a strong right biased editorial stance. We also rate them Mostly Factual in reporting rather than High due to anti-climate, anti-science stances, and occasional misleading editorials."

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/wall-street-journal/

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“Anti-climate stances.” What a gentle way to describe the gamble that will cause untold levels of violent and painful destruction of life on earth.

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I did too and I like the paper.

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We get all three because we’re masochists. I sound like Sarah Palin. :)

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Masochistic tendencies are underrated…

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But TC, didn't Ted Turner start this off by buying MGM's archive and then "colorizing" all the B&W movies because he didn't like them in their original format? And what about Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of multiple media companies? And what about Disney eating everything alive? This has been a "situation" for decades upon decades.

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Ted looked into colorizing and even tried it on a few films but it was prohibitively expensive and there was a huge backlash from those of us in the film community who saw it as a desecration of some of the finest black and white films ever made, so he abandoned that idea and profited by showing them on TCM. He bought the library for about 300 million and given that you could easily spend that much to make a single film 🎥 today, it was a very good deal. I knew Ted and he was no dummy.

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Totally not disputing his smarts Dick! I'm just saying that Bezos buying MGM is not unusual. I find the visceral response to Bezos super interesting, given that he is doing nothing that others have not done long before him. I'm not saying he's not a capitalist pig, but he isn't the Antichrist either. 🤪

One of the most horrific plutocrats, J. P. Morgan, was also one of the most devoted philanthropists to NYC. And his personal assistant and librarian of his collection, Belle da Costa Greene, was not only the second woman elected to be a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America (in 1939!), she was also a Black woman who spent her entire career "passing" because she would not have had a career had she not done so. The MAA has established an endowed fellowship in her honor specifically for medievalists of color--yeah a little ironic, I know.

I loathe and abhor everything Morgan stood for and the ways he made his money--Henry Clay Frick as well. But golly, the Morgan Library (as well as the Frick Collection) is a treasure that would not exist if he had not been such a dedicated collector. And da Costa Greene was responsible for the acquisition of much of it. So in my mind this issue is incredibly complicated. We might wish that people who amass billions would be automatic humanitarians and generous but they rarely are for the simple reason that the desire to amass billions and to take out all competition are characteristics that are antithetical to humanitarianism.

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One can also make the argument that Bezos and the other "space nut" billionaires are doing more for space travel and potential expansion than NASA. One can also point to Andrew Carnegie's libraries, over 3,000 were put in towns that had no library and almost all still exist.

That still doesn't prevent us pointing out that the system they used to do this isn't completely corrupt.

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That's more than a handful Linda, I knew nothing about the MAA which shows me how little I know. I also don't know a great deal about the namesake of the bank that I use, but I do know a few things you might find of interest; he was the subject of a very famous portrait taken by Edward Steichen in which his hand while resting on the arm of a chair appears to be holding a large knife, and he was also the principal benefactor of Edward Curtis for 25 or more years, in his lifetime quest to document the vanishing American Indian. While not perfect, nothing came close to the work that Curtis and his team did, and there's no way he would have been able to do it without the massive amount of funding that he got from J. P. Morgan. If you ever have a chance to view any of the 25 volume set with their portfolio of larger prints do yourself a favor and take the opportunity, the little over 250 sets that were printed were sold mostly to universities and the very wealthy, like the King of England. As a photographer, I treasure the work that Curtis did, so I have a warm spot in my heart for J. P. Morgan, in spite of his many flaws, but then who am I to criticize. Thanks for your enlightening reply.

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Turner's "colorization" was a failure and he then charged his new channel Turner Classic Movies with showing old films in their original print.

Murdoch just sold Fox (except Faux "News" Channel) to Disney.

Disney eating everything is indeed a problem, but the Mouse has been like that forever; what the techies are planning is on another level.

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Capitalism, even with open and fair competition, tends to be an extractive philosophy which is destroying the ecosystem in which we used to thrive. Growth is no longer simply or necessarily good.

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Exactly! But it would be death to the political career of anyone willing to say so out loud.

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